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The Elusive Corporal
The Elusive Corporal
7.6
/10
195 Ratings

THE ELUSIVE CORPORAL

Le caporal épinglé

Directed by Jean Renoir
France, 1962
Drama, Comedy, War

Synopsis

An upper-class corporal from Paris is captured by the Germans when they invade France in 1940. Assisted and accompanied by a diverse bunch of characters, the corporal tries to escape from prison camps, sometimes making it a few yards, sometimes reaching the French border.

Synopsis

An upper-class corporal from Paris is captured by the Germans when they invade France in 1940. Assisted and accompanied by a diverse bunch of characters, the corporal tries to escape from prison camps, sometimes making it a few yards, sometimes reaching the French border.

Our take

The penultimate feature from Renoir, which he considered to be his saddest film, is a darkly humorous WW2 tale, co-written by Guy Lefrance, who brought his experiences in a German POW camp to the page. A quasi-sequel to Grand Illusion, Jean-Pierre Cassel stars in this beautiful and humanist story.